Dave's Anatomy: My History as a Writer #85: Love and Obsession: “The Zig-Zag Man.”

This story began when I was in the military. It was one of those things that is not that significant but for some reason stick in your mind. Several of my friends were going to get tattoos. I was too squeamish to get a tattoo, but they all went. One of my friends said he wanted to get one of the “Zig-Zag man.” I said I didn’t know what he was talking about and he said the Zig-Zag man was “This really cool guy,” and I certainly would have seen it, but I didn’t get what he was talking about. Turns out, he did not end up getting the tattoo he wanted because that studio did not have that particular template. I did not find out about the Zig-Zag man for several years. Then I saw the figure in an advertisement. Turns out, he was the iconic figure for Zig-Zag papers used by those who roll their own cigarettes. The iconic figure that has been their logo is what he meant.

Somehow, even more years later, it led to a story idea. I came across an advertisement of a young woman in a very short skirt getting waiting for a job interview to begin. Above her left knee is a highly visible tattoo. The advertisement was for a dermatologist who removed tattoos and promised her procedures left no scars and traces of the tattoo ink. If you were a former wild child now going into the world of business and investment, she could get rid of that embarrassing tattoo you got in your younger days.

That made me think of tattoos, my old friends going to the parlor, and of the Zig-Zag man. I began to write. This story would be about two girls in love. I think I made it a story about lesbians because I remembered a line I had liked by a lesbian poet, “I lick the ink from your tattoos.” The outline for the story began to form in my mind.

The story begins with Olivia waiting to have a Tattoo of the Zig-Zag man removed. She had gotten it at age seventeen when she came out as a lesbian and began a relationship with Courtney. One night they are rolling joints with Zig-Zag paper and, influenced not a little by the marijuana they have smoked, decide to get tattoos. “We can’t get married, but we could do the Zig-Zag man as an unofficial wedding ring,” Courtney quips. And they do, Olivia on her knee, Courtney on the upper arm.

Their relationship lasts seven years and might have lasted longer but that Courtney gets busted for possession and for dealing drugs. The city is in a crack-down on drug dealers. Her lawyer advises her to plead guilty in hope of a lenient sentence, but the judge throws the books at her. She gets seven years. Olivia says she will wait, but soon both of them see the impossibility and break things off Courtney’s lawyer says she will be out in three years but she ends up serving the entirety of her sentence.

This sends Olivia into a tailspin. After a long period of unsuccessful relationships, she finds Brianna, a college student. They move in together. By now Olivia has become a successful member of a firm that rescues struggling business. She is well-off, owns a house, and has Brianna. The future looks rosy. Brianna likes the tattoo of the Zig-Zag man and laments when Olivia gets rid of it. But she says it’s not appropriate for the job. Not long after that, Courtney is released after serving her seven-year sentence. Olivia invites her over.

Courtney is the same as she was pre-prison:  quirky, funny, entertaining. She still has her tattoo and humorously chides Olivia for breaking her “vow.” They learn she was both drug-free and celibate in prison. “If you’re a dyke,” she said, “everyone wants to beat you up. The butch women want to pound you into being their submissive lover. The tough straight women want to beat the hell out of you so you know not to come on to them. So I spent all my time there working out so I could protect myself. I got into fitness and body-building. They have people come in and do aerobics classes and yoga. I started going to those too. I pretty much lived like a Buddhist nun. I was celibate—decided I simply would not have any relationships while I was there, and I didn’t. I did yoga, meditation, I studied, and made my body strong. She currently teaches yoga and fitness and works with a local dance troupe that does hula-hoop routines.

Olivia notices that Courtney has charmed Brianna. When she mentions this, Brianna calls her silly. And life goes on. Olivia’s aggressive handling of business bankruptcies lands her firm several millions in profits. Brianna has some troubles in her life and Olivia uses her straightforward, non-nonsense manner to school her. Things continue on, though she noticed Brianna has purchased and hung a picture of the Zig-Zag man above her desk. “I miss him,” she says.

As the months progress, Olivia senses something is not right. Brianna mentions that she has told some of her problems (especially her family's rejection of her) to Courtney. “She’s a good listener,” Brianna remarks. In an epiphany, Olivia releases she is not that. She she has never listened to Brianna but immediately given her sound, sensible advice on how to handle problems with which she deals. She feels bad about this but doesn’t know how to change her behavior.

One day she pulls up to meet with a client and see Brianna and Courtney sitting together at an outdoor restaurant. Brianna is talking animatedly. Courtney is listening. Olivia knows with just a glance that she has lost Brianna. Her own straightforward, domineering manner has driven her into the arms of Courtney, who will listen and sympathize. As she watches, she knows she has lost and there is no remedying the situation. As she walks to meet with the client, she notices, on the sleeveless shirt Courtney is wearing, on the fleshy part of her upper arm, the tattoo of the Zig-Zag man.

The story appeared in the anthology Tattoos. Get a copy here. Lots of good reads in that text (of course, mine is the best story in the anthology).

For more titles, check out my Writer's page.

And for a great Christmas gift for the readers in your family, get a copy of Sinfonia: The First Notes .on the Lute: A Vampire Chronicle, Part 1. Nelleke Reitsma is a very good lute and guitar player. She should be. She's had 300 years to practice.

I would love to hear your comments.

Happy reading.